The Baltimore Ravens double-overtime victory over the Denver Broncos Saturday drew the largest TV audience for an AFC divisional playoff in 26 years. That's as far back as CBS records go, the 1987-88 season, according to the network.

An average audience of 35.3 million viewers (Persons 2+) watched the epic contest that ended 38-35 in favor of Baltimore. That was up 3 percent from last year's average audience of 34.2 million for Denver and New England, according to Nielsen figures provided by CBS Sports.

The average viewership peaked at 40.8 million viewers between 8 and 8:30 p.m. during the overtime. The game earned a 24 rating during that stretch, which means that roughly one out of every four TV households in the U.S. was tuned to the game.

An average audience of 1.1 million viewers was watching in the Baltimore area during that overtime period. For the local full local story, read my post here.

A generation is generally considered to be 30 years. So, in terms of viewership anyway, Saturday's game really was one for the ages.

Ray Lewis, one of the best middle linebackers in NFL history, retired in 2013 after a 17-season career with the Ravens. Here are 12 things we miss about Ray Lewis, in no particular order. -- L'Oreal Thompson • Also see: The Baltimore Sun's Ray Lewis special section at...